The Reveal that Wasn't-And here's the Proof
by IamJaneen
Summary: Inspired by Kittbug's prompt: Marinette finds out that Adrien is Chat Noir and confesses her feelings to him. Of course, he doesn't know she's Ladybug so he rejects her as kindly as possible. Marinette, in a moment of panic, admits that she's Ladybug to him but he doesn't believe her. Chloe overhears the end. Marinette isn't going down without a fight and she has proof.


AN: I do not own Miraculous Ladybug or any of their characters, but I adore them anyway!

AN: Inspired by Kittbug's prompt: Marinette finds out that Adrien is Chat Noir and finally works up the courage to confess her feelings to him. Of course, he doesn't know she's Ladybug so he rejects her as kindly as possible. Marinette, in a moment of panic, admits that she's Ladybug to him but he doesn't believe her. Chloe (having overheard the last part of their conversation) starts berating her in front of the whole class for claiming that she's Ladybug just to win Adrien's affections. I read a few inspired by this prompt and liked it so much, I decided to write some of my own.

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Marinette had been working harder than usual to keep her feelings for her ridiculously cheeky partner in check as of late, but after seeing him drop into an alley and turn into none other than Adrien, it was clear that she wouldn't need to be doing THAT anymore. So she dashed after him as he wended his way back to school, excited to catch him and let him know that she could finally return his feelings. And had in fact been turning him down for himself. Only, as usual, her words came out all wrong.

"Adrien," she called out, winded but determined to catch his attention before he entered the school. "I saw you! Wow, this is kind of unbeeable. I mean believable. I go out with sometime? Ughhh. I meant, this is pretty unbelievable. I was wondering if we could go out sometime? On a date?" She was still catching her breath and was pretty sure she had skipped something in her confession, but it was better than nothing.

Adrien looked gobsmaked. "Um, Marinette, that's….Wow. I'm flattered. But I'm in love with someone else."

Oh. That's what she had forgotten. "I know, Ladybug, right? And I'm Ladybug!" She was all but bouncing on her feet. This was incredible. The guy that she had fallen in love with turned out to be her partner? Seriously, she had no idea being Ladybug meant she could be THIS lucky.

But Adrien did not look pleased. "Pffftt." They both turned as they heard a derisive snort. Chloe flipped her ponytail and headed off, calling behind her, "Wow, Marinette, that was pathetic."

Marinette turned to look at Adrien. "Marinette, I'm happy to be your friend, but please don't lie to me. This is honestly so out of character for you that I'm shocked." He then gave his friendly little wave and walked off.

Marinette face palmed. This was not exactly how she had pictured this going.

She dashed after Adrien, determined to set the record straight. As she loped toward him, she opened up her purse and reached into it. Tikki climbed into her palm, wondering what was going to happen next.

"Sorry, Adrien," she said, as she caught up to him. "Here, could you hold Tikki for just a moment, I need to find something in my purse." Adrien had halted, being the gentleman that he was and, though clearly a little annoyed, reached out his hand. And his brain stopped functioning as a small red kwami with black polka dots on it was unceremoniously dumped into his hand. The red kwami, which he realized could only be Ladybug's kwami smiled a big smile at him and shrugged her shoulders. Marinette dug in her small bag for just a moment, pulled something out, all though frankly Adrien wouldn't have registered what it was even if it had been an elephant. Then Marinette smiled brightly at him, reaching out her hand for her kwami, and said, "Thanks! Sorry for holding you up." And she dashed into school, leaving her partner immobilized.

There was no akuma that night. Marinette was not the type to call her partner for non-work-related stuff, and she wasn't about to change that right now. She still couldn't believe how impulsive she'd been after finding out who Chat Noir was. And she was also not the type to call ADRIEN AGRESTE for no reason at all. The last time she had done that, she'd wound up causing an akuma and stealing his phone, so she couldn't imagine that going well. For now, her plan was to wait it out. She could do that. Adrien, on the other hand, was in shock. Marinette was Ladybug. Either that or she'd stolen Ladybug's kwami. And while it was shocking that Marinette would lie to him, it was unbelievable that she would steal a hero's kwami AND lie to him. And if she hadn't stolen the kwami, she was Ladybug. Did she know he was Chat Noir? Why had she shown him her kwami? She had asked him out. But why? At this point, it didn't really matter. He had blown it. Ladybug had revealed herself to him, and he hadn't even believed her! He had no idea what to do. He decided to follow her lead, just like normal.

(AN: They really should have done something though!) The next day at school proved to be brutal. Chloe had had posters printed up. All of them were along the lines of "The lowly bakers girl claims to be Ladybug!" or "Lied to try to get Adrien to date her!" "Don't believe Marinette, she's a Liar!" To both Adrien's and Marinette's surprise, Lila and Chloe were working together, spreading the word and putting up posters. And everyone shunned Marinette. Alya did not speak to her. Nino kept his eyes on his desk. Adrien kept whipping his head around, but wouldn't make eye contact. And during any moment where a teacher was not leading a class, Chloe would loudly proclaim what she had seen yesterday.

Finally, it was lunch time and Marinette launched herself out of class and raced to the bakery. Only to find Adrien standing in front of the door to her house. Marinette paused for a minute. She was sooo not doing this, whatever this was, right now. She was fleeing. She'd just go around the corner, transform, and yo-yo herself into her room. Her feet started to move before she even consciously gave the order to them, but Adrien caught her arm.

"I'm sorry." His eyes were wide and sincere. "Can we talk for a minute?"

Marinette nodded. He stepped aside as she opened the door. She closed it after he walked in, but she did not lead him up the stairs. "What do you want?" Gone was the flustered girl from yesterday, the one who would say ridiculous things like totographs. This was all Ladybug. The girl who would look in the face of evil and speak with confidence and eloquence. Adrien wondered for just a second what caused the flip to occur.

"Why did you tell me?"

"I accidently saw you detransform in the alley after the akuma attack yesterday. I was so happy to find out who you were that I acted without thinking." She looked at the ground. "And now I get to pay the price of being impulsive, again. You'd think I'd learn, right?" She looked up at him.

Adrien was still processing. She knew he was Chat Noir. That was a huge relief. It means she hadn't revealed herself to a civilian. But she'd asked him a question. What was it?

"I'm sorry, I'm still kind of in shock. What did you ask?"

"Don't worry about it, Adrien. Do whatever you want. I'm going to go fortify myself with sugar before heading back to the mess I made at school." She turned on her heal and headed up the stairs.

Adrien followed her.

"What are you doing?"

"What I want. You said, 'Do whatever you want.' I want to support my partner. I'm just not sure how to right now. Clearly, I couldn't go into school today and say, "Yes, she really IS Ladybug," even though I knew it was true, because as much as you didn't want me to know your identity, I suspect you didn't want everyone to know your identity like a million times more, right? But maybe we can come up with something together that will help blow this over quickly. I mean, Lila lies all the time and gets away with it. Surely, we can find some way to smooth this all out. You weren't even lying to me. I'm sorry I didn't believe you." Marinette was standing by the door to her living room and it strangely reminded her of another doorway. Fitting, as she was falling for the same guy all over again. Uggghhh..pull it together girl.

"Do you wa want to come inside?" And the stammering was back. Thankfully, not too bad this time.

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AN: I'm hoping to continue this some time, but we'll see!


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